Over Wintered Seed Potatoes

I grew quite a few potatoes last year and was very pleased with them.  I ordered the seed potatoes from Eagle Creek. I thought I would try overwintering some of them to see if I could use my own potatoes as seed potatoes.  These potatoes are in perfect condition.

I harvested them later in the season and put them in a sandwich bag that I cut slits in. I stored them in the vegetable crisper drawer of the fridge .

 I still ordered a good supply of seed potatoes from Eagle Creek this year as I didn't  save many potatoes and wanted to make sure I have plenty for this year's garden.

These ones were harvested a little earlier but my mistake with them was that I had them at room temperature for a couple of weeks before I put them in the basement where it is about 15C. I stored them individually wrapped in paper towel inside an empty cereal box.  They were fine until February when they started to sprout.  They are quite shrivelled at this point but the shoots look fine so I planted them today in the garden.  Next year I will store all the potatoes saved for planting in the fridge. 

I was pleased at how well the home grown potatoes lasted.  Even the ones stored in the kitchen were firm with no sprouts in December. I had also parboiled, diced and frozen some of the potatoes and that worked well.  We had some just recently.  Very tasty fried up with some butter.  

 Plants I started inside are being hardened off.  The lettuce in the green pots will stay in the pots. I have found that three lettuce plants can grow quite nicely in an 8" pot if you fertilize them. This way if we get a sudden late frost I can bring them back in the house.  I planted some seed in the raised bed today so they will be ready when the potted lettuce is finished. The deck faces east which is perfect for hardening the plans off as they get the morning sun but not the stronger afternoon sun.